Literature

Fear and Loathing...

2007-05-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

Wow this movie was nuts! Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro were out of control the entire flick and to be honest without a little explanation I would have been completely lost and just thought it was a movie with no plot about guys gettin high as hell. The funny part is I picture Johnny Depp just like the character he played in real life mixed with a little captain Jack Sparrow. I guess gettin high off your rocker is a good way to completely forget about the world around you if it bothers you that much.

The whole movie the main characters were trying to live their idea of a dream and by the looks of it they found it, the question is was it really what Duke wanted. The dream the men were searching for was a dream of complete freedom from the world and its restrictions also in a sense from reality. The men broke laws and lived the high life for free in their hotels as they pretended to be people they were not. Everything the men got in life came to them for free or they stole never having to earn what they got. Also, the men tried to escape life by getting high in all the different forms this way they never had to face reality and lived their own trippy life. However the life eventually caught up with them. The men made beasts of themselves by completing disregarding and disrespecting the world around them as well as themselves. While on their drug trips they were animals and had no cares for anything or anyone. However, by the end of the movie everything had caught up with them and Duke saw that this dream he was living might not have been exactly what he wanted and just a bad idea. Duke finally hit his "high water mark" by reaching his breaking point and completely hitting rock bottom. Everything had caught up with Duke and went haywire and came back smacking him in the face. This dream he was trying to live pulled a three sixty because eventually every action is going to have a reaction.

The Importance of Being Earnest

2007-04-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

This play is actually funny in a very sarcastic sense. It seems that if the people were alive today all together they would just be complete smart asses with eachother. Every time one person has a comment the other is throwing back another comment. Also, the representation of the girls as dimwits is pretty hilarious as well. Gwendolyn is this controlling beotch it seems and everything has to go her way, sounds like a lot of girls at University of Delaware, forget that sounds like a lot of girls period! Then there is Cecily, basically she is a stalker. Who makes up a fake relationship with someone they never met and doesnt even really exist. Cecily seems like someone you would see on entertainment news being arrested for stalking a celebrity because she is in love with a character the actor played. The book is nuts but because everyone is out there and ridiculous it makes the book hilarious.

The witticisms that each character has are very important to the novel. The witticisms form who the characters are and basically form the entire book. I believe that Wilde has pulled out every extreme a person can have and put it into different characters. The only distracting part of the wittisms is that they might have to be read over one or two more times to catch on to what Wilde is trying to imply, however without the witticisms the play would not be the comedy I believe Wilde intended to create. Wilde's play is all together a large discussion of identity and different forms of identity a person can take on. The identities that Wilde decided to write about are identities normal society sees as ridiculous and uncalled for. While the play is a comedy it should also be taken seriously. People should take the play seriously in seeing how stupid they can look and how ridiculous someone can seem simply by the way they act. Wilde seems to pull out all embarassing components of specific identities and through humor shows his audience or reader how dumb people can look in real life.

Bernice Bobs Her Hair

2007-03-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” wasn’t an amazing story. There really wasn’t anything fun, exciting, or eye popping really until the end when she cut the nasty girls hair off. What a hell of a way to get the beotch back though!!! She should have shaved her eyebrows to just to top it off. I thought from the beginning of the story Majorie was going to be the protagonist basically, but it totally flipped and she ended up being the brat and Bernice was the nice one just putting up with everyone’s crap. F. Scott Fitzgerald always has something a little bit interesting in his writing though or some crazy twist at the end, even thought it probably wasn’t one of his best it was still pretty good. However, like I said before Bernice should have done more like shaving the eyebrows and maybe antiquing her, which is just tossing a crap load of flour in her face while she was sleeping. She also should have egged the dude’s house on the way to get the cab.

Fitzgerald represents identity through society in this story, particularly through Majorie and Bernice. At the beginning of the story Bernice’s identity is that of an old fashion Southern Belle. Everything that Bernice did in her actions and the way she presented herself seemed to be outdated and basically caused her to be unwanted and unattractive. At the same time as being an old fashioned girl Bernice had good intentions at heart, but just wasn’t accustomed to the society that she was in. Majorie represented the society in the story where everything took place. Majorie was a girl who did not respect the old ways and had let loose in a sense. The society was fun loving and free of all the uptight cares of the old days. At first glance it would seem that Bernice would be the one judging everyone, but because Bernice was the odd woman out she was judged. Due to the judgment Bernice received she adapted and adjusted to be accepted. Adaptation is typical in our society today, it is hard to find someone with their very own identity, but no impossible. Fitzgerald shows that identity is not static and can be changed through Bernice. Bernice does change her identity in the story by trying to become accepted and welcome in a different society in changing her ways. However, at the end of the story Bernice change is not completely what the reader expects. Bernice changed in the fact that she made an independent decision and stood up for herself by cutting Majorie’s hair. Identity is a tricky thing and Fitzgerald shows how we can lose and find it in “Bernice Bobs Her Hair.”

"Leda and the Swan" Yeats

2007-02-21T13:54:00.001-08:00

What the hell was this poem talking about? When I first read this sonnet I had no idea what was going on. I had to do a little internet investigation into what historical or mythological even this poem was about. I picked up on Agamemnon who was the king of Greece that lead the attack against Troy, I wish I could claim I was smart enough to know this from learning, but I only know from the movie. However, Agamemnon was only mentioned in the second part of the poem. The main part of the poem involved Leda getting raped by a giant swan and unless the swan was in the title I would have been completely lost of what was going on. Eventually through research I found out that Zeus turned himself into the giant bird and took advantage of Leda and impregnated her with Helen and someone else. Leda ended up having like four babies, but when it came to Helen and her brother she laid eggs and they hatched out of them. To be honest this poem is messed up, rape is messed up and horrible period especially when it’s the king of the God’s doing it, and second of all why would Zeus turn himself into a swan. Yeats picked a crazy story to right about, but I guess he got his point across with it.

Yeats is trying to accomplish teaching a simple theme through the poem “Leda and the Swan.” The theme Yeats is trying to accomplish is that one action will always have an effect and lead to more actions. In the poem we see Zeus take advantage of Leda and from this rape Helen is born. Helen is famous for her betrayal of Greece by fleeing to Troy and from this betrayal Greece attacks Troy. Troy ends up falling to Greece by the Trojan horse and at the same time the great King Agamemnon dies. It’s a mythological story which many times have meaning or a theme and this one is be careful of what you do because it will always lead to further consequences down the road and Yeats communicates this through a sonnet. “Leda and the Swan” presents the theme of a ripple effect. The poem presents the exact same theme for the present through the past that one action will always lead to a subsequent reaction and more actions down the road. Yeats seems to be telling the reader to be conscious and careful of what you do because it will always lead to something else, a simple and important lesson for anytime present or past.

Ruth Porritt

2007-02-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

1. This poem was pretty sick. Ruth Porritt was pretty creative in changing the way someone reads by doing it from bottom up instead of vice versa. She should try to go from right to left and bottom up next time it would make it even harder to read. Going from bottom to top was a little tough at first because it was not what my mind and eyes were use to but I got the hang of it eventually. On top of it all the poem was excellent either way you read it. Ruth takes the reader essentially through the journey or life, in the sense that we have to push hard and work hard to get to the top. People have to fight the norm to get what they really want and really have to work hard for. It also seems the harder you push the more beautiful the sights become or more rewarding the experience is. I think this is very true very few times in life do you achieve rewarding experiences without working hard for them.

2. Ruth Porritt teaches us that we have been so accustomed or comfortable to our normal conventions of reading that it will take a little work to break them. The poem “Read this Poem from the Bottom Up” challenges the reader to read in a completely new way then usual. At first most readers will have trouble reading the opposite way, however with work and farther into the poem it becomes easier. So like in life as well as in reading as you work and continue to push through something you break the normal conventions and become accustomed to something new.